As he passed the window Aiden moved closer to get a look outside. There wasn’t much to see. He was hoping for another beautiful garden like the other but it was not to be. As his breath curled from his mouth onto the glass it steamed up. Just about to wipe it with his sleeve Aiden saw something forming under the condensation. Breathing onto it again he saw the definite shape of a hand. Someone had been where he was now; looking out of the window he now gazed through. Terrified, he began to back away and as he did he focused more on the glass than on the handprint and he saw a tall figure in the cell behind him, just standing there, staring at him. He spun around with a gasp that got the attention of the estate agent. Coming to his aide the older gentleman asked in a concerned voice what was wrong. Aiden knew he could not admit what he had just seen, for there was nothing in the cell at all, no-one standing glaring at him. What had he seen then? He was certain there had been someone there. He looked with wide eyes from the room to Mr. Matlock and back again, fear making his heart beat an erratic rhythm in his chest. “Nothing” he whispered while still searching the small room for any signs of evidence.
Chilled to the bone for a reason he could not understand Richard Matlock stared at the young man in front of him. He did not like the colour his skin had turned. He was as white as a ghost. And his eyes! His eyes were darting around as if looking for something that was not there. He could see the sweat on the boys’ forehead and he could see the shivers that ran the length of his body. What had made him react like that? He was quite sure he would not get an explanation from him and even if he gave him one, would he want to hear it? He had never thought of himself as being fanciful in any way but he was not one to assume that he knew everything. He was pretty sure he knew almost nothing in comparison to the world’s great many mysteries, yet he could not help but think there was something strangely odd about the old house he stood in. There was nothing he could do about that though. He couldn’t very well refuse to put it on the market because he thought it felt eerie inside. No, he was here to do his job and do his job he most certainly would do; and to the best of his abilities. Besides, the eerie feeling could have something to do with the woman who had lost her father recently. He could not put his finger on anything in particular, but he sensed something fundamentally wrong. Whether it was with the woman herself, or with the situation he did not know. Perhaps it was the terrible physical appearance of her, all the cuts and bruises. Gently coaxing the young man away from the open cell door he led him further down the corridor. The first door they opened led into a small room with padded walls and a padded floor - the restraint room. It was stiflingly warm in the room compared to the corridor and the other rooms and it was also deathly quiet. It had a repulsive smell of dried perspiration and urine that made them feel ill. The air seemed thick and it felt as if it was clogging their lungs and throat. They got out and closed the door as quickly as possible but found that the sweaty smell of stale body odour and the repugnant, bitter stench of urine still clung inside their nostrils.
The second door led to a large day room. This room was more pleasant than the other rooms. It had soft yellow paint on the walls, although it was cracking in places, and a pale blue carpet with a very busy pattern on that was thick with dust. There were a number of scratched tables with hard plastic chairs sitting around them. There were also about a dozen comfy-looking armchairs that were placed strategically around the room. A large book-case stood against one wall and it was full of board games such as chess and scrabble and bridge. The day-room led to a smaller room with a metal filing cabinet in and a large cupboard with a huge heavy padlock on it. On the door of the cupboard it read “MEDICINES” in typed capital letters. Apart from the door in the room there was a small window that looked onto the day room with glass starting halfway up and a gap at the bottom. It reminded Aiden of the cashier’s desk at the bank. They left the room and walked the other way down the corridor. There were seven doors in total down the second part of the corridor. The first two they came to were both restraint rooms like the other one. Outside the rooms there were six straight jackets hanging on coat hooks moth-eaten and discoloured. Six straight jackets but seven hooks, one empty right at the end. The next room they came to on their right was a kitchen with the basics in; a stove, a sink, a larder. A small closet opened off the room. Inside were mops, step-ladders, buckets, and various other cleaning equipment and moth-eaten cloths. The stench of stagnant water and musty cloths was rife. Another door had a set of keys hanging from a hook next to it. Trying the door they found it locked so Richard took the keys and unlocked it. They discovered that the door led from the kitchen to a small garden. All the plants and flowers out there had long since died due to neglect and weeds. The stems of the flowers had all dried up and wilted and the small area of grass that was once probably a lush green colour was now nothing but dried up yellow hay covering an arid cracked base of mud. Richard imagined it to be a nice little area when well-kept. A nice place for the patients to come and get a bit of fresh air.
Still taking notes as Aiden locked and double checked the door to outside Mr. Matlock tried to stem the trembling of his hands as he wrote. He did not want the young man to see he was afraid. Goodness knows he was scared enough as it was, the poor thing. Mr. Matlock could see that just by looking at him. No, best to get on with his job and then take his leave. He had never understood some people’s desire to be scared. Why would anybody want to be frightened? He had never been one for spooky movies and he had yet to encounter his first horror book. It just wasn’t for him. A horror virgin, he could be dubbed. So why was it that some people went out of their way to experience fright? Was it something in their genetic makeup? It seemed absurd to him that anyone would willingly put themselves through something terrifying. Something like visiting a haunted house. Like the one he was in right now because he had no doubt about it; it was haunted. Maybe not in the supernatural sense but there was something certainly off about it. If he had known beforehand would he have still been the one to come? Thinking about it he guessed he would. How often would he get an opportunity such as this? Still, it didn’t mean he had to enjoy being there.
Aiden watched the man in front of him closely. The sweat on his brow kept breaking out no matter how many times he dabbed rhythmically at it with his handkerchief and on his upper lip but that could be from the exertion of walking through somewhere this size. Somehow though, Aiden thought it was because of a different reason. The pleasant-looking man didn’t have so much enthusiasm as before. Nor did he smile so much as frown. He jumped at every small noise. He kept looking behind him as though sensing something there. And his hands shook. Aiden saw him trying to force them to stop but he could see. So it wasn’t just them who were experiencing things. This thought oddly pleased him.
Continuing along they came to another door. It led to a bathroom that contained a small bath and toilet, nothing fancy like the bathrooms in the house with their decorative tiling and complementary flooring; this was just a plain, white bathroom. The room next door mirrored the previous one exactly. The next room down on their left was a staff room. It had large comfy chairs and a small kitchen area and a toilet that led off from it. The last room they came to - and they were extremely glad it was the last - was at the end of the corridor facing them. They pushed the heavy double doors and they squeaked open with an unusual sucking sensation, a bit like the old plastic doors some supermarkets used to have to separate the chilled section from the un-chilled Richard recalled, feeling his age, onto an unusual looking room that was full of strange looking machines and devices. The room was very big, the biggest in this part of the house.
“This must be the treatment room.” Mr. Matlock muttered, morbidly fascinated.
It was very intimidating and oppressing just standing in the doorway. They weren’t in a hurry to explore the room, so they just stayed at the door, Aiden becoming increasingly panicked for now apparent reason, while Mr. Matlock took his notes. Scribbling furiously Richard Matlock did n
ot see one of the curtains billow out, as if disturbed by a gust of wind. But he did see at the back of the room a stack of papers fly off a table onto the floor.
Aiden turned to him with great fear in his eyes and Richard looked just as scared as him, but he said in a calm voice “There is always a logical explanation for things; you just have to look for it. Maybe the air from out here rushed in when we opened the door and that’s what caused that to happen.” Even so, he was shaking as he said this. “I’ve finished here anyway” he said over his shoulder. “Shall we get back?” and he turned to see the back of the young man disappearing down the corridor without him.
56
He was rushing to catch up with Aiden and put as much distance as possible between him and that awful room when a shrill scream pierced the air. Neither one of them looked at the other. They kept their eyes forward and walked on quickly. They turned the corner into the long dank corridor that led back to the kitchen when they heard it again. Closer this time like it was following them. Picking up their pace they had visions of some horrible grotesque thing lurching after them. They virtually ran through the door and back into the kitchen. Lisa and Debbie were sat looking perplexed at them.
“What on earth’s the matter with you two?” Debbie asked.
“We heard one of you scream and we rushed back to see what was wrong.” Aiden answered.
“We never screamed and we didn’t hear a scream either! You must have imagined it.” Lisa said. She didn’t believe for one second that they imagined it; she just didn’t want Mr. Matlock to know the secrets of the house. “Come and sit down at the table and have a nice cuppa.”
They took their seats at the table, obviously unnerved, but after a couple of minutes they had themselves under control again.
“It must have been air that was trapped in one of the rooms that we let out and it made that noise when it escaped.” Mr. Matlock said, happy with his analysis of the noise, though not happy enough to want to go back through that door. He thought to himself the only way he would go back in there was if somebody were to offer him a very large amount of money, in cash. This thought re-jogged his memory as to why he was here anyway.
“I would like to discuss my valuation of the property with you Mrs. Adams” he thanked her for the cup of tea she had just poured him and continued “This house has a lot to offer, as I’m sure you know. It has all of its original features which I find astounding, quite frankly. There are a lot of people who would love to own a house with so many features from its original architect. They are quite hard to come by, you know. You can buy likenesses in certain shops, but they are shoddy compared to the originals. It is a very large, well-built house with around, and my partner only calculated this roughly before I came here by the way, around sixty to eighty acres of land, including the drive and gardens, the surrounding forest - did you know that was part of the land also? Of course, that was only estimated by photographs of the estate and we are unsure as yet where the properties boundaries are, so it could be more or less. It has enormous potential Mrs. Adams and I think it shouldn’t take too long to sell. As for its value, well, it is worth an astounding amount of money. How much were you expecting from the sale?” he asked earnestly, obviously eager to have their thoughts on the price before he told them the wonderful news.
“Well, at a guess, I would have to say around seven-hundred thousand. Is that close, or is it far too much?” Debbie asked him with a look of embarrassment on her face.
He gave her his best smile for he loved this part of the job, unless people expected it to be more than what it was worth which happened more frequently than he would like, but he had never had a house worth this much on his books before. “It is way off Mrs. Adams. Far too low a price for a property of this excellence.” He took in their astonished expressions before he went on. “I would actually put the asking price at around one point six million pounds Mrs. Adams! But of course, I would need to be sure how much of the surrounding area belongs to this estate first and also if there any other buildings on the land that would, of course, bump the price up.”
They sat there not quite believing what they had heard. “I’m sorry, how much did you say?” enquired Lisa wanting to double-check before they got too excited.
“One point six million! I understand your surprise, but let me assure you that I am being very serious about this. Some people choose to lower the price they get from the valuator, but I suggest you stick to the final price we give you. I am certain you will receive the full asking price for the property, Mrs. Adams.” The smile on the face of Mr. Matlock was genuine.
He was taking great pleasure from their surprise and he hoped that it would help with their loss of Mrs. Adams’ father. He knew they would still have to grieve for him, but a lot of families are grateful for their inheritance, this family being no exception from the look of things. They were all completely stunned by this news. They had never had very much money and Lisa and Aiden always resented their grandfather for having so much and never once offering to help them out. He knew their mother was struggling as a single parent on her meagre salary and that they could only afford the basics. Even when Debbie did have a little spare cash, she spent it on the children, buying them toys they had seen on TV or the latest trendy trainers, none of it ever went on her. As long as her children got what she could afford she was happy just seeing the smiles on their little faces. That’s why, when they had both got themselves part-time jobs to fit around their college hours, they each insisted on giving her a little extra every month as well as their house-keeping money they gave her monthly. She never asked them for much, just ten pounds per week from each of them to go towards the bills and the weekly shopping, so they had decided to give her a bit extra just for herself. They made her promise to spend it on only herself and nothing else and it took some persuading, but eventually she had agreed to it. She was so grateful to them. She knew how lucky she was to have such wonderful kid’s, some parents got nothing but abuse from their children and there she was getting money from hers to treat herself. They would each give her ten pounds a month and she would buy herself some new clothes with it, or have a haircut, or have a manicure done. She felt very guilty at first, after all she was the mum, it should be her money being spent on them and when she told them as much they told her that’s the way it had been all their lives, her money going on them and her going without and that it was her turn to be treated for once. Sometimes they would buy her small gifts as well. Lisa had bought her a nice bunch of flowers and Aiden had bought her a big box of chocolates that she had insisted they all shared while they watched a film together, to which Aiden insisted that it was nothing romantic or soppy. In the end they had settled on a comedy. They had had so many good times that off the top of Debbie’s head she couldn’t remember one bad time, apart from their visit here that was.
They never had much money, but what they lacked in that department they more than made up for with love and fun. While their friends were going to theme parks and on holidays abroad with their parents, they would go to the park for a picnic and a game of football, or to the swimming baths, or even just in their back garden for a water fight. The house was always full of laughter and happiness. Debbie lived solely for her children and they had everything they needed growing up. They never missed their father because Debbie was both mum and dad to them. She scalded them when they needed it which was hardly ever, and when they had been naughty it was only what children normally get up to; squabbling with each other, not doing as they were told, nothing really bad. She comforted them when they were upset, she played with them, amusing them for hours with her silly games, she went to all their parents evenings at school and relished the news that they were both doing brilliantly in everything, she cared for them in every way possible, but most of all she loved them with all her heart and soul, which she thought was more than double what their father could ever love them, they thought so too. And now with the incredible news of how much they stood to in
herit from selling this house, their lives couldn’t have been better. Finally things were looking up for them.
57
They had another cup of tea with Mr. Matlock while he talked them through the upcoming process, then they talked about how things would proceed from there.
“I will put this house on the market first thing tomorrow morning when I get to work. I will also post a copy of the details through to our other estate agents in Leeds, which will surely speed up the buying process. Have you got a solicitor Mrs. Adams?”
“I haven’t no, but my father has, I mean had. A nice man called Mr. Leeson.” At this observation Aiden rolled his eyes.
“That is fine. Superb! If you can get in touch with him as soon as possible so he and I can start getting everything sorted out.”
“Do we have to be here when someone comes to view the house? It’s just that we were hoping to leave tomorrow you see.” Aiden told him.
“Not at all, now that it has been valued you don’t actually have to be here for anything else, it can all be done over the phone if that is easier for you. Of course, there will be paperwork but that can be sorted out by either coming to the office or your solicitors’ offices, or I could send the relevant documentation through the post. If that is what’s going to happen, I will need a set of keys to let in the viewers. All you have to do is sit back and wait for the house to be sold.”
The Haunting Within Page 16
